Using grid techniques for drug target identification

The completion of the sequencing of the human genome has opened an unprecedented opportunity in the discovery of novel drug targets for disease therapy. However, one of the major challenges facing the drug discovery community is the expanding of data and the need of large-scale computational power in a collaborative environment. Grid techniques can present an architectural framework that aims to provide access to heterogeneous resources in a secure, reliable and scalable manner across various administrative boundaries for drug discovery, which has been a promising strategy for solving large-scale problems in modern pharmaceutical R&D. In this review, we discuss the current applications of Grid technology in drug target protein identification process; and an overview of drug target discovery system architecture, focusing in particular on the data manager service system architecture is also proposed.